team | CNN Indonesia

Sunday August 20, 2023 05:05 IWST

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Forest fires devouring two metropolitan areas Canada, particularly in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. This event caused tens of thousands of Canadians to flee.

Reported AFP On Saturday (19/8), Canadian Environment Minister Shane Thompson revealed that around 19,000 residents had been evacuated from the city of Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, for 48 hours.

“More than 15,000 people have traveled by road and 3,800 have been airlifted, with around a thousand essential personnel remaining in the city and surrounding areas,” Shane Thompson tweeted.

A Yellowknife official also revealed that the company had transported more than 3,500 people on 40 flights to Calgary. They also provided nearly 500 hotel rooms for refugees.

Yellowknife has a population of 20,000. Today, the area is referred to as a ghost town after its residents temporarily abandoned it in the largest evacuation ever in Yellowknife.

Government weather forecasts showed that rain the day before caused a sharp drop in temperatures. This therefore helped to calm the fire a little.

On the other hand, the red rooster also devoured more than 2 thousand kilometers of the city of Kelowna in British Columbia. The city has a population of 150,000 in the Okanagan Valley.

In west Kelowna, the fire is believed to have destroyed several properties. Thick smoke in the area made it difficult for many people to breathe.

Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma revealed that up to 15,000 people had been ordered to evacuate B.C.

Canada would have broken a record for forest fires with more than 14 million hectares engulfed by the red rooster. This figure represents almost double the area of ​​the last record which affected 7.3 million hectares.

So far, four people have died due to the forest fires currently raging in Canada.

(pre/pre)